Staff Reporter :More than one hundred people are feared dead as a launch carrying about 200 passengers capsized on the Paturia-Daulatdia route in Padma River at Manikganj on Sunday. The ill-fated overcrowded launch sank in the river soon after it was hit by a cargo vessel. The rescuers recovered bodies of 48 people, including women and children, till the time of filing of this report at 7:30pm yesterday. Of the deceased, 16 were male, 11 were female and seven were children including a six-month-old girl. The identity of others could not be ascertained immediately, Officer-in-Charge [OC] of Shibaloy Police Station Rakibuzzaman said.Of the total recovered bodies, 15 were identified as Hanif, 25, of Kushtia, Sufia, 28, of Rajbari, Jewel, 24, of Rajbari, Firoz, 40, of Kushtia, Nabijan, 70, of Rajbari, Mudusudhan Saha, 60, of Kushtia, Salim Reza, 21, of Kushtia, Imran, 8, of Daulatpur, Nargis Akter, 11, of Faridpur, Rabia Khatun, 22, of Rajbari, Jalal Sheik, 35, of Faridpur, Fazlur Rahman, 25, of Rajbari, Joynal Sheikh, 32, of Bhandaria, Lata, 22, of Manikganj and Smriti.The baby girl, who was identified as Smriti, daughter of Faruk Hossain of Goalanda Upazila of Rajbari district was rescued from the river but she was declared dead at a local hospital, the OC said.Traffic Inspector of BIWTA, Dinesh Kumar Saha said at least 45 other people were rescued alive and sent to hospital.The passengers met the tragic end of their life when ‘MV Mostafa’ sank in the mid river in the broad daylight after it was hit by fertiliser-laden cargo vessel, ‘Nargis-1’ around 11:45am. MV Mostafa was heading towards Rajbari’s Daulatdia Ferry Ghat [terminal] from Paturia Ghat in Manikganj while the cargo vessel Nargis-1 was heading for Baghabari in Sirajganj.Meanwhile, the rescue vessel Hamza started from Mawa towards the accident site to salvage the sunken vessel. Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan and other senior officials visited the spot after the incident, our correspondent said.Harun or Rashid, Assistant Superintendent of Police [Manikganj-Shibaloy circle] said the exact number of the people missing in the capsize could not be ascertained yet.Police seized Nargis-1 and arrested its master Iqbal and his assistant Shahidul.Soon after the accident, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation and naval police jointly started a salvage operation and rescued at least 60 passengers. Later, divers of local Fire Service and Civil Defence joined the rescue operation.When contacted, Deputy Commissioner of Rajbari Rafiqul Islam said that the rescue ship MV Rustam has also started for the spot around 12pm, which is supposed to take 5-7 hours. “The district offices of both Manikganj and Rajbari have set up a control room at the riverside and have been working together. They will coordinate the operation to recover the bodies and handing over them to the families and look after the transports,” the DC said.Meanwhile, hundreds of relatives thronged on both banks of the Padma river in search of missing passengers.
